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Windows 7: Wow, I actually bought digital music today

After being a holdout for year after year after year, I finally broke down and bought my first MP3 cd today online from Amazon. While I thought that I would really miss getting the real cd, having it in seconds, for less than $7, and downloaded to my Amazon cloud and playing on my Amazon Cloud player on my Droid within seconds is pretty awesome. Didn't even have to leave my chair, except to go for my 6 mile run while listening to my new music while tracking my distance via Runkeeper.

I just recently started buying some music digitally. Mostly because it's either unavailable, or out of print/hard to find. Some of the music I love comes from other countries and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for the shopping just to get it here, since for some reason our country has such bad taste in music.

After being a holdout for year after year after year, I finally broke down and bought my first MP3 cd today online from Amazon. While I thought that I would really miss getting the real cd, having it in seconds, for less than $7, and downloaded to my Amazon cloud and playing on my Amazon Cloud player on my Droid within seconds is pretty awesome. Didn't even have to leave my chair, except to go for my 6 mile run while listening to my new music while tracking my distance via Runkeeper.

Oh well, I guess times change.

Join the club.

After much prevarication I've started buying music from iTunes and I've been pleasantly surprised by how easy it was and how good the quality of the music is.

My first purchase was 60 tracks for £15, which is far cheaper than buying a CD and I get to listen to my favourite tracks rather than buy a compilation album and find I only really wanted half the songs.

At this rate, my iPod is soon going to fill up as I have the best of my complete CD collection on it as well.

I held off for a long time because 1). I wanted something physical that I could rip in any format I choose 2). I wanted something that I could potentially resell if I was no longer interested in it 3). I wanted something that would play back in the CD players in my car 4). I didn't want to be tied to anything with DRM or be in a system like iTunes where you can download it once, but you MUST have iTunes backed up or you risk losing everything as Apple wouldn't let you download twice.

With Amazon, I download to the cloud and pull from there. So, my music is always in the cloud.
I'm saving a few bucks per disc for the digtal download versus the physical media...this helps make up for no resell.
This saves me the time of having to bother ripping the cd.

If I want to listen in my car though, I need to either bring my phone or MP3 player and use input through tape deck, or burn to a physical cd. < I can live with this. It's probably faster to burn the CD, than to rip the CD...or at least around the same time.

You make a valid point about Apple's iTunes, but you can use their cloud to store your stuff and access it with whatever you're using at the time. However, they do charge for it at a rate of £21 per year I think.

I refuse to pay that and have my downloads backed up to an external hard drive and DVD-Rs.

Never tried Amazons service, but I use and love Zune. The ability to download and listen to anything I want is nice, without needing to purchase. (well except for the $15 monthly fee)

I still buy physical disc from time to time, but most of my purchases are Digital as well these days, through Zune.
i too do not like iTunes. My biggest complaint is it feels like a chore to find what you're looking for if you have a large library. its not very intuitive. Then again, perhaps its becasuse Im not that used to it.

I just took a quick look at Zune. It appears that you cannot simply browse their song selection without first installing their software.

Is that correct?

I'd much rather browse than be forced to manually search for any artist of interest. Is browsing possible BEFORE laying down money?

Also---how do you find their selection of highly obscure old stuff--pre 1960?

It's not likely I'd be interested for the long haul, but I might sign up for a month or two and go on a hog wild download spree------IF AND ONLY IF I could first confirm they had anything I want. That's only slightly possible, but I might give it a shot.

Yes, you need the Zune Software. But the Music you download can also be played via Media Monkey, Windows Media Player etc without issue on the PC.
For mobile devices I believe you need tyo have a Zune device, or a Windows Phone.

In regards to the service itself, yes. You can download entire albums, or just a single song. there is no limit. You can also simply stream it if you prefer.
Theres no limit to how much you can download, or how much you listen to or how often. You have unlimited access to Zunes entire library, as long as your subscription is valid.

However, the songs themselves you DL are copy-protected.
You can NOT burn a CD or play the music after your subscription expires, and you can NOT play the music on any PC or Device that is not authorized.
Unless of course they are songs you purchased. Zunes store works like any other. Items that you purchase have bo DRM on them.

You can have 3 PCs, and 3 Devices on a single account at any given time.

Used to, you got 10 free songs every month. But they took those away for new subscribers. they may go back to that plan later, but Im not sure.

-- I find Zune easy to browse. The software itself after you set it up to your liking is very nice. The store isnt too bad.
If you think you may be interested, I believe they offer the service for a 14 day trial. It will give an idea of what its like.

The Zune software itself is free. There no need to buy anything, and its also how you access the Marketplace.
You can download/install it and use it like you would iTunes or WMP. You may find you like it better.

Personally, even without the Zune subscription I would still use the software.

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